Thursday, February 2nd, 2215Weather: The sun comes out, adding to the general slushyness of Haven.
Events: Haven's still all buzz over Otherworld. It's all anyone seems to be talking about. Besides that, the old pre-cat film
Groundhog Day is playing today only at a theater in the west district. Groundhog Day isn't observed in Haven - it's one of those things used to laugh at the silly superstitions of pre-cat society, but fun films are fun films.
Things are
very busy at the Diaspora camp. Around noon a scout enters the communal dining tent, and says he has the whole story - because he was one of the scouts that brought them in.
This scout - a man in his early 50s by the name of Flint - has a really good reputation in the camps. He’s a hard worker, and a dedicated scout, known to have a good head on his shoulders. He also likes to talk though, and talk he does. Flint tells a tale of coming across two heavily wounded men while patrolling with a few other scouts. Initially, they had no idea who the men were - their conditions were so poor, their wounds so grievous. Flint describes them as being covered in wounds and burns, drenched in blood, and improperly dressed against the elements. One of them was missing several fingers, with the wounds cauterized shut. Upon encountering other human beings, they simply collapsed. At that point the scouts began tending to their wounds, mistakenly assuming them to be fellow Diaspora. At one point one of the men woke up and announced himself to be Haven military - a mere breath before begging for help. Flint made the decision that they should be brought back to the elders. There, the one coherent soldier tells the group that he and his unit had been scheduled to return to Haven on the day of the maelstorm. They tried to take cover as best they could, and all experienced a great sense of disorientation. When it was over and their heads cleared, they found they were in unfamiliar territory. Shortly thereafter, the entire unit was attacked and captured by NYC bandit gangs.
At that point, the story gets a little unbelievable - at least to the average Diaspora. The soldier insists that there is an actual
army of bandits in the city that have taken over Manhattan. Many different gangs have banded together, with a mind to set out and conquer new territory. From that point out, the unit was subjected to a constant stream of torture. Flint refuses to repeat some of the ‘atrocities’ described, but it was apparently pretty brutal, even by city gang standards. The soldier insists that the army is planning to march on Haven, and anything that stands in their way. And yes, this includes the Diaspora.
Apparently a scout called bullshit on the idea that two wounded soldiers could escape, but Flint put forth the idea that they could have been intentionally allowed to escape to tell people what was going on. At any rate, from that point on the elders dismissed all the scouts.
Flint’s story makes the rounds pretty quickly, and finally the elders call everyone to an announcement at about 6 PM. They confirm Flint’s story to be true, and announce that they have decided to help the wounded soldiers and send them back to Haven when they are well. Nothing else regarding the story the soldiers tell has been decided, but they’re sending out every available scout in parties to try and confirm the information.